Hollywood Hills residents fed up with illegal tour buses

Residents at a town hall meeting on Tuesday night held by the Hollywood Hills West Neigh-borhood Council (HHWNC) are not stars — their homes are not occupied by Brad Pitt, or Justin Bieber or Gwen Stefani. They don’t want to ruin the tour bus industry, they just want peace, quiet and safety along the roads in the Hollywood Hills.

Some residents are concerned about multiple tour companies running buses in the Hollywood Hills. (photo by Susan Mullins)

“I think the biggest issue for all of us is that the tour buses and tour vehicles are completely unregulated,” said Susan Mullins, president of the Upper Nichols Canyon Neighborhood Association. “There is no checking on them, other than police catching them when they are doing something wrong.”

John Campbell, a 16-year Hollywood Hills resident, said complaints about the tour buses are not being heard.

“What I now encounter is as many as five or six vans at one time when I make the one-mile trek down the hill to Franklin [Avenue],” he said. “These buses stop wherever and whenever they see fit, stopping traffic and creating a safety hazard. They run any one of nine stop signs between Franklin and Mulholland on Outpost Drive. Some have speaker systems blaring out information along the way.”

Representatives from the 13th District Council Office said they are continuing to gather information and find ways to regulate tour buses along Hollywood Boulevard — they have found as many as 14 companies that were not licensed.

Councilman Tom LaBonge, 4th District, sent his regrets that he could not attend the meeting — he represents the Hollywood Hills — but said his office would take the grievances and possible solutions from the HHWNC meeting and put them into action before he leaves office this summer.

Tour buses often park along roads in the Hollywood Hills to drop off passengers seeking views of the Hollywood Sign, which concerns many residents. (photo by John Campbell)

“There are a lot of frustrated stakeholders in our area and they are very frustrated with the tour buses,” said HHWNC vice president Cyd Zeigler, who is also the council’s PLUM chair. “They’re frustrated because they feel like they haven’t been heard. We wanted to do this to bring together the city agencies and the stakeholders to begin a dialogue about the issues. I’m confident now we won’t be ignored. There are real safety issues here, somebody is going to get killed.”

Senior Lead Officer Ralph Sanchez, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Division, said police are trying to keep up with the dozens of tour buses running through the Hollywood Hills.

“They’re causing a very severe safety problem for their passengers, especially on these blind curves,” Sanchez said. “[A tour bus driver] waved me around a few months ago, and I was like, ‘Are you serious?’”

Sanchez said he writes the most citations for illegal parking, double parking, illegal use of flashers and unloading passengers on a roadway.

Captain David Storaker said the department depends on residents to call authorities to determine where the greatest number of offenses occur.

“I do take this seriously,” he said. “We have a pin map in my office. You have pointed out to us where we have to be.”

He added that approximately 54 citations were issued on Mulholland Drive in the last month. Storaker said the LAPD is also looking at repeat offenders to present cases to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.

Mullins said a lot of the problems come from tour buses that could barely be defined as such.

“There used to be just a few companies and now anyone who can cut the roof off their vehicle and slap on a sign, they have a tour bus,” she said, estimating 70-80 tour vehicles drive through each day. “Nobody is telling them what to do, where they can’t go and how to behave. They seem to have no real sense of any kind of commitment to good citizenship with how they do their work in the community.”

Starline Tours of Hollywood, which is one of the largest operators, sends 13-passenger tour buses into the Hollywood Hills. Director Philip Ferentinos said the company has tried everything it can to be a good neighbor, but he has noticed an increase in businesses with questionable operations trying to compete with Starline.

“By far, the majority of the problems come from these small, badly managed independent tours where people can’t even go back and complain because they have no physical location,” he said.

To combat noise concerns, Ferentinos said Starline spent a lot of money four or five years ago on a headset system for all its buses.

Some residents cited concerns about small tour buses having only a driver and no tour guide, but Ferentinos said he was confident in his team.

“Ours are definitely not getting on their cellphones,” Ferentinos said. “I think our professional drivers are much more responsible than the general public.”

Ferentinos said he would favor a city ordinance requiring headsets, along with more industry regulations. He also suggested a system to register guides to prevent fraud.

“We pride ourselves in having the correct information and keeping up to date, and at the same time, being respectful to the neighborhoods,” he added.

Zeigler said HHWNC would take the comments and suggestions from the meeting to the current city council and the 4th District candidates running in the general election.

In 2011, LaBonge authored a motion to regulate the tour bus industry, but the motion did not move forward. In January 2014, LaBonge authored a second motion — passed by the city council — to have the city attorney’s office examine creating an ordinance to force tour buses to use headsets, but the item has not been brought up since.

On Wednesday, he said it was important to balance the interests of tourism in Hollywood and the needs of the residents. He added that the industry has grown significantly in recent years.

“Now, there are over 60 to 70 tour bus operators, and there does need to be better control,” LaBonge said.

“We know that tourism is important to Los Angeles and we want to support that,” Mullins said. “But we have to do it collectively in a way that preserves the safety and quality of life in the Hollywood Hills and Mulholland Drive.”

1 Comment

Tony fisch

Apr 12, 2015

Tour van operators and their drivers have been violating the Commercial weight law in the Hollywod Hills since 2011 when LaBonge illegally developed a scenic Vista under the Hollywiod Sign, LaBonge and Ramsay as his Chief made half hearted promises to help us and NEVER delivered in assuring SEC 80.36.1 was enforced. Don’t believe any promises he makes and do NOT count on Ransay to do anything more then LaBonge If elected. She failed over a two year period to do so serving as chief. We residents pushed LAPD Commercial unit to get new portables scales, pressured LAPD West Traffic Div to train more officers to help enforce and we are currently pressing the City Attorney to issue stay away orders to repeat offender tour operators. We had to do what LaBonge and Ramsay would not, including pushing DOT to place additional signage to allow the unit to cite operators. We are doing C4’s job, for what ever reason, you pick them! LaBonge will Not, would not lead a long term plan to assure our public safety and traffic mitigation, nor will he sincerely push for a Tour operator solution. It is his legacy. If we do not elect Ryu expect more of the same from Ramsay because Tigers do not change their stripes, especially if they are City Hall insiders supported by other insiders.